Emergent Research

EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

Authors

The authors are Steve King and Carolyn Ockels. Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. Carolyn is leading the coworking study and Steve is a member of the project team.

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Disclosure Policy

Emergent Research works with corporate, government and non-profit clients. When we reference organizations that have provided us funding in the last year we will note it.
If we mention a product or service that we received for free or other considerations, we will note it.

But the HBR article expands on a topic we haven't covered in-depth. This is as the use of skilled external talent increases, so does the need for more efficient ways to find, hire, and manage contingent workers as well as integrate them into a company’s teams.

We believe corporate external talent platforms — platforms that directly connect external talent with internal projects and teams — are emerging as the leading method for accomplishing these tasks.

Key quote from the article:

Blended, constantly shifting teams of internal and external talent are increasingly the norm as corporations tap skilled workers to help them become more innovative and react more quickly to changing markets and competition. We believe the release of PwC’s Talent Exchange to be a watershed moment in terms of how skilled external talent is used at major corporations.

We expect to see many more corporations follow in the path PwC and The Washington Post and embrace external talent platforms in the next 2-3 years.

This will, of course, create new opportunities for skilled independent workers.

July 30, 2013

Deloitte's The Open Talent Economy suggests the traditional employment model is giving way to a networked model that consists of a "portfolio of full-time employees, contract and freelance talent, and, increasingly, talent with no formal ties to a company at all."

Key quote from the article:

The classical employment model—vertically integrated companies hiring full-time employees to work eight- to nine-hour shifts—has given way to a new approach: the open talent economy—a collaborative, transparent, technology-enabled, rapid-cycle way of doing business through networks and ecosystems.

This new talent model consists of 4 broad categories of talent that are increasingly being mixed and integrated as needed to produce goods and services.

The chart below (from the article) describes each of these categories.

It's interesting to note that 4 out of the 5 talent pools are comprised of contingent talent. Only balance sheet talent consists of traditional employees.

The Deloitte article is targeted at larger organizations, but we see the same talent trends happening in both the small business and solopreneur spaces.

We just got the data back from our annual survey of independent workers (freelancers, independent consultants, self-employed, etc.). It shows about 25% of these "solopreneurs" aren't really solo - they hire contingent labor on a regular basis.

We'll have more on this topic in September when we release the 3rd annual MBO Partners State of Independence report. To see last year's report, click here.

2. Coworking Membership is Growing Even Faster: In addition to the rapid growth in coworking facilities, the coworker headcount in each space has, on average, increased by about 60% over the last couple of years. This means the number of coworkers globally is growing even faster than the number of coworking facilities.

3. Existing Spaces Are Expanding: According to Deskmag's 2nd Annual Coworking Survey, 36% of all coworking spaces plan to open at least one new location in the coming year and 37% plan to expand their existing space of move to a larger space. Only 27% do not plan to expand in 2012.

5. Startups are Flocking to Coworking Spaces: Not surprising given the interest of VC's, startup companies are increasingly based at coworking facilities. Many traditional coworking facilities like NextSpace and Parisoma cater to startups, as do the growing number of venture accelerators. Traditional small businesses are also moving to coworking spaces and over 40% of all U.S. coworking members work for or own a small business or startup.

6. Large Corporations Have Discovered Coworking: Zappos, Shell, Steelcase and Accenture are but a few examples of the growing number of large corporations participating in the coworking movement. Also, a lot of corporations are creating internal coworking spaces, with Plantronic's new HQ being a great example. Another interesting data point is roughly 9% of all U.S. coworkers work for a company with more than 100 employees.

7. The Business Center Industry is Embracing Coworking: The business center industry has historically been skeptical about the merits of coworking. But over the past year, this view has changed and many business centers are now offering coworking options. Regus, the world's largest business center company, even recently claimed they invented coworking.

8. Economic Development Agencies are Discovering Coworking: While still a new trend, economic development groups at the state and local level are beginning to support coworking initiatives. Examples include Gangplank, which works with several local governments in Arizona, and Iowa City, which actively supports coworking.

"Weak ties" are links among people who are not closely associated. Stanford professor Mark Granovetter's classic 1973 paper The Strength of Weak Ties described the powerful role they play in spreading ideas, finding jobs and helping people join together for action.

We found they also play a positive business role for members of coworking facilities.

For those not familiar with Deskmag, they are a German publication covering the world of coworking. They also conduct the annual Global Coworking Survey and other research on coworking and the future of work.

February 23, 2012

We're starting to look at how mobile workers choose and use touchdown spaces. These are workspaces mobile workers use while away from their regular work locations.

Starbucks is probably the best known and most widely used touchdown space. They combine convenience, free Wi-Fi and expensive coffee in an easy to find and use package.

Joining Starbucks and other coffee shops in offering touchdown spaces are a wide variety locations including libraries, hotels, chains like McDonald's and others.

Bars are even becoming touchdown spaces. Metro Focus has an article on Boffices, which they define as Bar + Office. They have a long list of New York boffices. My small, suburban town has a boffice. It's called the Roundup Saloon and it's the town's only freestanding bar. If you get tired of working you can play pool or their table-based version of shuffle board.

Several startups are trying to help mobile workers find touchdown spaces. Liquidspace, for example, lets mobile workers book free and for-fee space by the hour, with little or no advance warning. They have a great description of their service and locations:

Book last minute or plan ahead. Browse, reserve, and check in to space immediately at hip coworking venues, high-end business centers, or handy hotel lobbies or libraries. With LiquidSpace, choose a better space for what you need to do now.

Loosecubes is another touchdown space service provider. You can even search for spaces based on their "vibe" and other social and business attributes.

While coworking facilities tend to focus on regular users, they also offer touchdown services. Most have daily rates and many are part of the Coworking Visa program, which allows coworking members to use any of the participating coworking spaces.

January 23, 2012

A few years ago we worked on a "future of gas stations" project for a major oil company. One of our forecasts was that gas stations would offer business center services (Internet access, printers, office space, etc.) to motorists.

I'm curious to see how this pilot goes. When we looked at this the driver (bad pun intended) was the growing number of people using their vehicles as mobile offices. This is a large and growing group that need support beyond what they can carry.